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A review by adrienne_l
Old Country by Matt Query, Harrison Query
3.0
As many other reviewers have noted, Old Country is a good story doomed by poor storytelling. The set-up, the setting in the foothills of the Tetons, and the manifestations of the spirit that haunt the characters are all interesting and, in the case of the manifestations, chilling. However, the writing for most of the book is pretty awful and weirdly casual. For example, a character will "take a shower and shit" or "crush some coffee and breakfast." This jarring, slangy, juvenile way of describing a character's actions in the narrative would catapult me right out of the story and was in no way endearing or informative, if that's what it was meant to be.
As far as any other character development, it's pretty much non-existent. There's no nuance or depth to Harry and Sasha. Harry is flat-out an annoying jackass and just (as another character gratifyingly tells him) stupid. The clearest thing I learned about Sasha is that she has terrible judgement when it comes to her choice in a life partner. Unlikeable characters are not inherently a problem for me. I read Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith right before picking up Old Country and found the awful couple in that novel fascinating. But Harry and Sasha are one dimensional and boring.
The writing does get noticeably better in the last hundred pages or so. It's too bad that whoever wrote the final section didn't go back and revise the entire book. My three star rating is for the story idea (the bear chase is pretty freaking awesome) and those last hundred pages, but this book left me really disappointed.
As far as any other character development, it's pretty much non-existent. There's no nuance or depth to Harry and Sasha. Harry is flat-out an annoying jackass and just (as another character gratifyingly tells him) stupid. The clearest thing I learned about Sasha is that she has terrible judgement when it comes to her choice in a life partner. Unlikeable characters are not inherently a problem for me. I read Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith right before picking up Old Country and found the awful couple in that novel fascinating. But Harry and Sasha are one dimensional and boring.
The writing does get noticeably better in the last hundred pages or so. It's too bad that whoever wrote the final section didn't go back and revise the entire book. My three star rating is for the story idea (the bear chase is pretty freaking awesome) and those last hundred pages, but this book left me really disappointed.